Gospel Reflection on Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

March 30, 2025

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable:

And he said, “There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.’ And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to make merry.

“Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”

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The parable of the two brothers, which we hear every Lent, is really a story about distance. Distance from their father and distance from their truest selves. The younger son made a terrible error in leaving his home. He goes in search of joy, taking the path of complete autonomy. He is connected to no one, not to his father or even to himself.

His conversion begins when he reenters into himself. He comes to his senses, comes back to himself, to his true identity in the father's house. This reentering into himself involves a return to the truth about himself and a rediscovery of how wonderful the father really is. The older son who lives close to the father physically, ironically, has placed a greater distance between himself and his father because he has the attitude of a slave. He says, all the years I've served you, not once have you given me a goat to celebrate with my friends.

He's lived the continuous error of behaving like a slave in the house of the father. The older son, in fact, is saying he doesn't want to celebrate with his father. He would prefer to do his own thing with his own friends. With you, father, I'm just a slave. I'd prefer to do as my younger brother did and go away and have a feast somewhere else.

He shows us that a servile attachment to God doesn't lead to joy, but to bitterness. He considers himself faithful and is angry that his wayward brother should be rewarded for his sinfulness. The older brother shows that he truly believes that real enjoyment comes from these forbidden worldly pleasures. We see, in fact, that the older brother is as far away from the father as the younger brother was when he left home. It seems absurd, but the older brother who keeps the rules is more in error than the younger brother who broke the rules recklessly.

It's more dangerous to live convinced of our own righteousness than to be in error and discover our true identity through the mercy of the father. People who are under the illusion of their own faithfulness find it more difficult to repent than sinners whose offenses are clear to everyone. The parable is usually named after the prodigal son or the merciful father, but its real center is the older son. This passage opens with the grumbling Pharisees and ends with the grumbling son who does not rejoice in the fact that his brother has been restored to life. It is very difficult to be converted from a position of false righteousness.

Sin is a terrible thing, but the Father is always greater than our sin. But more than anything, he respects our freedom. If we consider ourselves righteous and say no to the mercy of the Father, then there is little he can do. The prodigal son's heart was opened by hunger to the beauty of the Father. All of us are in a way impoverished and have a desperate need to enter the feast of the Father.

May this Lent help us to climb down from our lofty opinion of ourselves and open ourselves, open our hearts to the Father's love and mercy.